The North London Line as it exists today is the amalgamation
of several previously separate railways.
Its origins though lie with the North London Railway which curiously
had more of its track in East London.

MAIDEN LANE

(1850 - 1917)

1930s map showing 1) Maiden Lane station and 2) York Road station
on the Piccadilly line. Neither station had a high patronage.

Islington & Hackney councils have expressed a
desire for the reinstatement of a station on the Maiden Lane
site to serve the redevelopment plans for the Kings Cross goods
depot area - click here for details - although reopening
of York Road tube station seems unlikely.

Looking south-west on York Road at the remains of
the Maiden Lane station building.

(Sep 2006)

(Sep 2006)

(Sep 2006)

Track level.

(Sep 2006)

MILDMAY PARK

(1880 - 1934)

1930s map showing Mildmay Park station at the top left. Also
the triangular Dalston Junction, with Broad Street being in a
southerly direction and Poplar & Bow to the east.

A photo of Mildmay park station which was
taken in July 1976 after a car in the workshop of John Holtons (whom
leased the building at that time), caught fire whilst being welded
and in turn caught the roof, which as you can see was quickly
brought under control by the Fire brigade. It was at this
point that the Station lost the ornamental rail around the top
part of the roof when it was recovered later.

Looking east from the Mildmay Park road bridge. The scant remains
of the staircase leading up to the station building are on the
left of the photo. The space vacated by the removal of the platforms
is obvious.

(June 2006)

Early 1980s view from the opposite end of the platforms (King
Henry's Walk), westward toward the station building.

Hazy view of the old station platforms from the current Dalston
Kingsland station. The train in the photo is just approaching
the Mildmay Park station site, showing just how close the two
stations were.

(June 2006)

DALSTON KINGSLAND

(1850 - 1865 & 1983 - present)

The original Kingsland station on this site was closed in
1865 when the route southward to Broad Street was opened; the
Dalston area was served by a new station, Dalston Junction, on
the Broad Street line. Over a century later, when closure of
that line was finalised, a new Dalston Kingsland station was
opened on its original site on the new look North London Line
that ran from Richmond through to North Woolwich (so a replacement
station replacing a replacement station).

To complete the picture, Dalston Junction station, disused
since 1986, is now due to be reopened as part of the East London
Line extension.

If you look at the Dalston station
comparisons [move your cursor over the image to see the 2006
comparison], what struck me was the gentrification. The warehouse
on the left, now obviously loft style apartments and the building
behind it with the roof adornments. The other thing is the bloody
graffiti!
The other obvious railway feature is the dual electrification
(is this unique to the NLR, I wonder?)
This really is a case of shutting a station for a century and
then building a new one in exactly the same place. Just like
they're going to do on the ELL extension. I'll be interested
to see how busy Haggerston will be. It was never busy, even in
the NLR's heyday. I really thought that they would resite that
one, maybe a little nearer to the Waste on Kingsland road, particularly
as they are moving Shoreditch nearer to the Geffreye Museum.